The replica of the Schooner, Pascual Flores, has now had it’s 3 masts refitted by the Nao Victoria Foundation, an organisation that specialises in the restoration of replicas of historical ships The masts had previously been lost due to lack of maintenance, while it was docked as a floating museum in Torrevieja.
The mayor of Torrevieja, Eduardo Dolón together with the Councilor for Culture, José Antonio Quesada, visited the boatyard in Huelva where the refitting is taking place.
The Foundation will receive 750,000 euros over a period of five years for maintaining the ship in exchange for which it will also be used as an “ambassador” of the city’s maritime and salt-mining history visiting ports and mounting exhibitions in Spanish waters and abroad.
On the first of these tours it will call into the port of Torrevieja, thought to be toward the end of June.
The job of restoring and overhauling the Pascual Flores began last November 2020, when the boat was pulled out of the water in Punta Umbría (Huelva), since which time more than 25 craftsmen, including carpenters, caulkers, welders, blacksmiths and engineers have been working to restore it to it’s former glory.
Since then, its gangways and cabins have been restored, the lining and deck boards have been changed, and the hull caulked and painted.
On April 14, the ship was launched and moved to Huelva, where new masts were fitted and where work is currently under way to complete its rigging. A bow thruster has been installed, and it will be equipped with new ‘state of the art’ equipment for international navigation.
Once the work is completed, it is expected in the next few weeks, the ship will begin its first promotional tour calling into a number of different Mediterranean ports , with a special stopover in Torrevieja, toward the end of June.
It will be equipped with exhibition content and can be visited by the public and schoolchildren in all the cities where it stops, with it will provide a program of activities designed together with the Municipal Institute of Culture.
After spending several days in Torrevieja, the ship will sail to the Bremerhaven Maritime Festival (Germany), which will be held from August 11 to 15, the very first time that it will take part in an international maritime festival.
